No mention is made of the undeniable impact of Australia's population growth on the nation's declining biodiversity in the government's first report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity (KMGBF)'s monitoring framework appears to be a process to monitor decline rather than repair biodiversity loss.
Australia's population expanded by nearly 9 million people or 46 per cent since the year 2000 and will reach 28 million usual residents in 2026. SPA estimates that there are up to another million people living in Australia below that categorisation.
Quotes attribuate to Michael Bayliss, SPA Spokesperson and Communications Manager:
"At the heart of biodiversity loss are the needs of an expanding population. All other efforts at amelioration treat the symptoms while ignoring the underlying cause, population growth and resultant consumption."
"Industrial scale land clearing for human infrastructure, including housing, transport, extractive industries, farming and power generation, places massive stress on Australia's biodiversity."
"Emissions, land degradation and loss of habitat caused by human activities are all amplified as population numbers expand."
"Band-Aid solutions will not resolve ongoing degradation, only to support managed environmental decline."
